Stigma In 'According To You May Ask Yourself'

According to You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley, stigma is “a negative social label that not only changes others’ behavior toward a person but also alters that person’s self-concept and social identity.” There are three main types of stigma according to Ervin Goffman. Physical, which include physical or mental impairment such as anorexia or leprosy. Moral, which is signs of flawed character such as convicts or drug addicts. Tribal, which is membership in a discredited or oppressed group such as cults or mafia.

The movie Easy A is a perfect example of a moral stigma. In the movie, the main character Olive lies to her best friend about losing her virginity. A classmate named Marianne overhears, and spreads the rumor around. The school teen

Not only does the stigma change the way you are viewed by people but it also changes the way one sees themselves. Because of supposedly sleeping with two people, she was then treated poorly and started to have a lower self-esteem. She was continuously harassed about sleeping around so she unknowingly commits a social experiment which is when . She wears more provocative clothing and puts on a red “A” on all her clothes. Guys try to increase their popularity by giving Olive money to pretend that they have slept with her, which increases both their popularity. Her best friend then joins the church group because she was jealous of her best friend's newfound popularity. Mariannes boyfriend gets an STD and blames it on Olive. The english teacher's wife, confesses to Olive that she slept with Marianne's boyfriend, and Olive takes the blame to save her. She later tells all the guys who pretended to sleep with her to confess the truth, but no one does. Even the teachers wife refuses to tell the truth and instead threatens olive that no one will believe a teenagers words over an adult. In real life, people will gravitate towards a person without a stigma because they do not want to be